Independent participatory media for Iran

“Political prisoners must be freed!” was one of the chief slogans chanted in Iran’s 1979 Revolution. However the regime that took over after the Revolution further perpetuated the history of Evin and other prisons for political prisoners. Many went from political prisoners in the old regime to becoming political prisoners of the new regime. The change was so rapid that it was as if the torturers and inquisitors of the old regime only ended their shift and others took over the new shift.

Behind the High Walls: Life and Death in Iran's Prisons, a film sponsored by Radio Zamaneh and Free Press Unlimited, depicts the physical and mental tortures, executions, coerced confessions and the ordeals of men and women who had participated in the 1979 Revolution with high ideals of justice and freedom but fell victim to a new and perhaps more organized form of oppression behind the many prison walls of the new regime.

About the director

Documentary filmmaker Farid Haerinejad has raised awareness and drawn attention to issues related to human rights, minority rights, civil society and freedom of speech in Iran. His media experience invovles work at Rogers Television, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Radio Zamaneh. Haerinejad directed the international award winning documentary film Women in Shroud which addresses the practices of stoning in Iran.